Forza Motorsport

MGS delivers the final reviewable code. Our full update.

By Douglass C. Perry

Updated: 19 May 2012 3:17 pm

Posted: 14 Apr 2005 5:12 pm

A little more than two years ago, Microsoft OK'd a small team of 20 people to come up with a racing game plan. Dan Greenawalt, lead designer for the upcoming racing simulator, told us that all he wanted to do was to create a great simulator. When the initial project received the green light, he commenced. Inspired by many great racers, including Gran Turismo, Greenawalt hired people who had the tools and backgrounds to create a simulator. He forged ahead, hiring engineers and physics specialists to make something authentic, highly realistic, and like no other racer before it.

"I wanted to create a game that infected people," said Greenawalt, his eyes blazing with a determined focus normally only seen from a deeply religious person. "We weren't afraid. We were absolutely determined to create a fantastic racing simulator... and we did it. But at the time, when we had a great simulator, we realized it wasn't necessarily a great game. And we learned, among many other things, we needed to make the physics more accessible, more handle-able. So we started on the game."

Two-plus year later, after pushing Microsoft Game Studios' test team and the Xbox Live teams to their limits, MGS's Forza Motorsport, replete with 231 licensed cars, Xbox Live play for up to eight players, and a host of other unusual and unique features, is primed for a May 3 release date. We have a final reviewable build and we've played it.

is a unique experience. The final menu system is white, with smooth-moving tabs and quick movement from mode to mode. In Career mode, which Greenawalt explained is easily a 70-hour experience -- with online play, customization, and all the races involved -- players start by picking a region. Whether they select North America, Europe, or Japan, that's their base.

"This is a car collecting game," he explained. "We hired a designer from Nintendo's Pokemon team and we've played a lot of Animal Crossing and Diablo II." Greenawalt's aim is not to create the next great Pokemon Kart Racing game -- thankfully -- but to glean the best elements from the aforementioned titles, titles that are especially good at delivering superb collecting and ongoing social experiences, and to implement them in a meaningful manner in Forza. Seems understandable, given that races take place from New York City to Tsukuba, Japan, and that there are more than 200 cars to collect. "With Forza, we're mixing chocolate and peanut butter."

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What many dedicated racing fans want to know, however, is not how this game metaphorically resembles a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, but instead how it's different from the Forza demo released over the summer. The single track demo, which featured a dozen or so cars and one course, Leguna Seca, offered a glimpse into the game's distinct physics, graphics, and menu system. But it didn't reveal the bombshell MGS will drop on us come May 3.

"The major differences between the final game and the demo, well…there's a lot," said Greenawalt. "But the main differences are the graphics and the assists. On the assists side, we created more room in the analog for people who felt the control was too literal. There is extended play in the brakes. The ABS is more balanced, and it's more biased than in real life to provide a less rigid response while turning. We tuned it for gamers."

The other aspect is graphics. Forza is indeed a very pretty game that's finally been optimized, polished, and honed to a shiny gleam. While still not as remarkable as Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 4, the cars, backgrounds, and courses are all realistic, refined, and beautiful.

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